Tagliente all'uncinetto anni 70 designer: Feldman del

Nota: Last week I wrote about Arlene Stimmel. I’ve since learned a bit more about her and haveupdated that post.

If you’re following along on my exploration ofedgy 1970’s crochet designersyou’ll see that I’ve jumped ahead on the list this week. I’ve decided it makes the most sense to share what I know about the designers that I have found the most information on while I continue to research the other designers. So this week I’m talking about the terrific Del Feldman.

Who is Del Feldman

Del Feldman was originally a sculptor but she wasn’t able to make enough money in that form of art so she turned to crochet which allowed her to make a living in the 1970s. She pushed the edges of what crochet could be by exploring various free form crochet patterns and techniques. She opened her own Greenwich Village boutique and made a living teach her free form crochet ideas to others. The basic foundation of her teaching was that once you know the most common crochet stitches your work is limited only by your own creativity. I so agree! She emphasizes in at least one of her books that it’s the freedom of crochet that makes it such a wonderful form of art. She also celebrated the fact that historically crochet was always done as an art form or decorative choice, not as a necessity (in contrast to other old crafts like weaving.) Del Pitt Feldman is one of the crocheter’s included in the CGOA Hall of Fame.

Del Feldman in Creative Crochet

My go-to book for the start of my research into each of these edgy crochet designers isUncinetto creativo. Del Feldman has a few items featured in this great vintage free form resource, all of which are vests. Del Feldman also did non-wearable crochet art but her wearable work was definitely attention getting. Infatti, I was kind of surprised to find that she wasn’t one of the artists featured in theArte da indossarebook that I’m so loving these days.

Del Feldman in Hard Crochet

Another book I love for 1970s crochet research is Mark Dittrick’sCrochet duro. Del Feldman has work featured in that book as well but in this case it’s very structural spiral crochet vases.

Del Feldman’s The Crocheter’s Art

Although Feldman’s work made cameo appearances in those other great 1970s crochet resources, the real wealth of information about this crocheter comes from her own books. I have a copy ofArte di Crocheter, New Dimensions in Free-form Crochet, a book she put out in 1974. The book features the work of many other crochet artists from that era but most importantly gives insight into how Del views crochet as art. Infatti, the entire first chapter is titled “How Crochet Can Be Art”.

This book shows some of Del’s crochet art that can be worn (there are mittens, ad esempio) but what I love about her work in this book are the examples of dolls and landscapes that are shown here. And my favorite is a crochet plant holder. I think I love it because the hanging plant holder seems so classic to the 1970s but I always think of them in macrame, not this kind of cool creative crochet.

Crochet di Feldman del: Scoperta e progettazione

Feldman has another book from the 1970s that I don’t have a copy of. Si chiama Uncinetto: Scoperta e progettazione. È un 1972 book so it pre-dates the other books I’ve mentioned here and is therefore tougher to find. I bet it has some great stuff in it though!

Del Pitt Feldman Today

I don’t know for sure what Feldman is up to today. Tuttavia, I’ve seen some mentions here or there that give a hint. Ad esempio, there was a 2008 Mostra d'arte chiamata Eat Clay or Dieat the Greenwich House and Feldman was named as one of the participating artists. She was also named as an artist participating in their holiday sale that year. If you know anything else about Del’s more recent work I’d love to know about it!

@CrochetBlogger That sounds awesome! I have to admit I rush to Amazon after almost each of your posts :). But I have been restrained – so far books are just going onto the wishlists and not into the cart :).

@undergroundcrafter That’s always good. I try to be responsible and put everything on a wish list for thirty days to see if I still want it after but I confess I haven’t been doing that with these books. Totally worth it though. I’m loving my growing 1970s crochet art book collection!

Loved seeing this post about my crochet idol Del Pitt Feldman. I have both of her books and refer to them constantly. IO, troppo, am surprised that she is not mentioned in books about free-form crochet. She was so innovative and looking at her books recently, I decided to explore make a modern tribal garment. Thanks for this wonderful site.